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Nathan A. Holocaust testimony (HVT-113) interviewed by Dori Laub and Laurel Vlock,

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-113

Videotape testimony of Nathan A., who was born in Tarnopol, Poland, in 1930 and moved to Kraków at the age of three. He tells of the deaths of his mother and grandmother in 1938; the outbreak of the war; anti-Jewish legislation; and his dismissal from public school. He relates the establishment of the Płaszów camp on the site of the Jewish cemetery; his and his father's transport in March 1940 to Kraśnik, near Lublin, where they joined his older brother; their internment in the Bełżyce ghetto; and ghetto life, which was characterized by round-ups, deportations and random violence. He describes the liquidation of the ghetto, which he, his father, and brother escaped, and the formation of a sub-camp of Majdanek in its place. Upon the liquidation of the sub-camp in May 1942 they were taken to Budsin. He speaks of his slave labor there; stealing weapons and ammunition for the camp resistance; and an unsuccessful escape attempt by some resistance members. He relates his transfer to Majdanek in June 1944; the death march a short time later to Auschwitz/Birkenau, and from there to Gleiwitz; his arrival at Blechhammer in January 1945; and his slave labor in Plauen until his liberation by the Americans. He also recounts his emigration to Israel in 1948 and his encounter with a former camp commander in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Author/Creator
A., Nathan, 1930-1988.
Published
New Haven, Conn. : Holocaust Survivors Film Project, 1980
Interview Date
February 23, 1980.
Locale
Poland
Bełżyce
Ternopilʹ (Ukraine)
Kraków (Poland)
Kraśnik (Poland)
Budzyń (Poland)
Language
English
Copies
3 copies: 3/4 in. master; 3/4 in. dub; and 1/2 in. VHS with time coding.
Cite As
Nathan A. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-113). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.